Despite things being a bit under the radar, the 2020 season of GT World Challenge America powered by AWS will have a decent grid for its kickoff at the Circuit of the Americas, as 14 entries committed to battle for glory at Texan soil.
The worry for this year is that the grid numbers wouldn’t be kept due to the abolition of the Pro Cup, which leaves the GT World Challenge Europe the only series of the package with the class, though the addition of the Silver Cup may be the compensation, with the American series the last one where the newest class in SRO competition was added. The Pro-Am and Am Cups stay as intended, with the former having now an improved opportunity of fighting for overall wins instead of relying on a perfect run, like what was seen with RealTime Racing at Road America in 2019.
The Silver Cup will start a single entry, an Acura NSX GT3 Evo from Racers Edge Motorsports that will be driven by open wheel ace Shelby Blackstock and Acura boy Trent Hindman, who comes with a GTD class title in the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship in Acura machinery.
The Pro-Am Cup is the most populated of the field, with ten entries from nine teams, representing six manufacturers. DXDT Racing is the only team fielding two cars in the class, as their pair of Mercedes AMG GT3s will be with George Kurtz, Colin Braun, David Askew and Ryan Dalziel. Winward Racing, which had ties with HTP Motorsport, has the other Mercedes of the class, driven by Russel and Bryce Ward.
Ferrari also has quite the fleet, with three cars for Squadra Corse, Vital Speed and TR3 Racing. Keep your eyes in the Squadra Corse entry, as World Challenge ace Martin Fuentes will have the company of Rodrigo Baptista in their Ferrari 488 GT3, becoming a strong candidate for a triumph this weekend.
Acura, Porsche, Bentley and BMW have one entry each to complete the Pro-Am Cup grid, with a second NSX for Racers Edge being followed by the return of GMG Racing in a 911, a single Pro-Am Bentley Continental and an M6 from Stephen Cameron Racing. K-PAX will rely in the cohesion of Patrick Byrne and Guy Cosmo, and GMG will also be a threat with James Sofronas and Jeroen Bleekemolen in their entry.
The Am Cup has three entries, which is unbelievably better than the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup class grid in 2019, as a pair Porsche 911s from Park Place Motorsports and Wright Motorsport will face off the lone Ferrari 488 from Vital Speed.
The COTA weekend of GT World Challenge America powered by AWS starts this Saturday (7) afternoon with the first GT race, while the second race will be on Sunday (8) afternoon.
PHOTOS - SRO/Gavin Baker
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